let's bring in senior congressional correspondent miss dana bash. dana? republicans say president obama's opening offer is, you know, all take and no give here. do they feel like the president is wasting their time? >> reporter: yes. they do. and, you know, a lot of times when we see this kind of toing and froing in public, don, it masks what is really going on behind the scenes, which is real negotiating. so i asked that question of john boehner, who has been through this kind of negotiating many, many times over many years, if that's what we're seeing or if we're at a stalemate. listen to this . the past 24 hours, is this the necessary public posturing that needs to go on to get an endgame or is there serious stalemate right now? >> there is a stalemate. let's not kid ourselves. i'm not trying to make this more difficult, but if you watched me over the last three weeks, i've been very girded in what i have to say because i don't want to make it harder for me or the president or members of both parties to be able to find common ground. but when i come ou